P5A MB will not recognize WD ATA 80GB drive

Sounds like your motherboard's BIOS can only recognize up to 40GB. That's
the problem with using older motherboards.

--
DaveW



"Hugh Hardie" <hhardie DeleteThis @comcast.net> wrote in message
news:455v90l1sahsmdi0h2q4vdpdqmvvbr12db@4ax.com...
 > I purchased a WD ATA 80GB drive. My P5A motherboard will not recognize
 > it.
 >
 > The drive is recognized on two other machines. The P5A MB has been
 > flashed with the latest BIOS. The cable from one of the machines which
 > recognized the drive was used in the P5A MB and the drive was not
 > recognized.
 >
 > The driver is jumpered as Master and there is no other drive on the
 > cable.
 >
 > I subsequently purchased a WD ATA 40GB drive and it is recognized in
 > the P5A machine.
 >
 > I am at a loss as to where to go from here.
 >
 > Hugh
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: P5A MB will not recognize WD ATA 80GB drive 

 > I purchased a WD ATA 80GB drive. My P5A motherboard
 > will not recognize it.
[..snip..]
 > I subsequently purchased a WD ATA 40GB drive and it
 >is recognized in the P5A machine.
 >
 > I am at a loss as to where to go from here.
 >
 > Hugh

Hugh,

You may be better off with a new controller such as any of
Promise Ultra series.

My P5A-B was very fussy about newer hard drives before I popped
in an Utra100... Performance is better than the onboard ALi
controller as well.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: P5A MB will not recognize WD ATA 80GB drive 

Follow Paul's advice and try the WD drive on cable select.
- Tim

"Hugh Hardie" <hhardie.RemoveThis@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:455v90l1sahsmdi0h2q4vdpdqmvvbr12db@4ax.com...
 >I purchased a WD ATA 80GB drive. My P5A motherboard will not recognize
 > it.
 >
 > The drive is recognized on two other machines. The P5A MB has been
 > flashed with the latest BIOS. The cable from one of the machines which
 > recognized the drive was used in the P5A MB and the drive was not
 > recognized.
 >
 > The driver is jumpered as Master and there is no other drive on the
 > cable.
 >
 > I subsequently purchased a WD ATA 40GB drive and it is recognized in
 > the P5A machine.
 >
 > I am at a loss as to where to go from here.
 >
 > Hugh
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: P5A MB will not recognize WD ATA 80GB drive 

On Mon, 10 May 2004 23:24:51 GMT, "DaveW" <none.DeleteThis@zero.org> wrote:

 >Sounds like your motherboard's BIOS can only recognize up to 40GB. That's
 >the problem with using older motherboards.

No, I have an IBM 75GB drive running on my P5A, with the latest beta
BIOS as reported by Paul up-thread.

I don't recall off-hand if I jumpered the drive as M/S or CS.

--
Robert B. Clark (email ROT13'ed)
Visit ClarkWehyr Enterprises On-Line at <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.3clarks.com/ClarkWehyr/" target="_blank">http://www.3clarks.com/ClarkWehyr/</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: P5A MB will not recognize WD ATA 80GB drive 

Glad to har that someone else is still running this board. Good to know the
HDD info as well. Which cpu are you running, Hugh?

"Michael J. Apollyon" <zvpunry.wb DeleteThis @ovtsbbg.pbz> wrote in message
news:yk8oc.48628$wY.31436@nwrdny03.gnilink.net...
  > > I purchased a WD ATA 80GB drive. My P5A motherboard
  > > will not recognize it.
 > [..snip..]
  > > I subsequently purchased a WD ATA 40GB drive and it
  > >is recognized in the P5A machine.
  > >
  > > I am at a loss as to where to go from here.
  > >
  > > Hugh
 >
 > Hugh,
 >
 > You may be better off with a new controller such as any of
 > Promise Ultra series.
 >
 > My P5A-B was very fussy about newer hard drives before I popped
 > in an Utra100... Performance is better than the onboard ALi
 > controller as well.
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: P5A MB will not recognize WD ATA 80GB drive 

In article <455v90l1sahsmdi0h2q4vdpdqmvvbr12db DeleteThis @4ax.com>,
hhardie DeleteThis @comcast.net says...
 > I purchased a WD ATA 80GB drive. My P5A motherboard will not recognize
 > it.
 >
 > The drive is recognized on two other machines. The P5A MB has been
 > flashed with the latest BIOS. The cable from one of the machines which
 > recognized the drive was used in the P5A MB and the drive was not
 > recognized.
 >
 > The driver is jumpered as Master and there is no other drive on the
 > cable.
 >
 > I subsequently purchased a WD ATA 40GB drive and it is recognized in
 > the P5A machine.
 >
 > I am at a loss as to where to go from here.

The P5A is a very old design now dating from about 1997 or so. Could
there be a Bios inherent limitation on this new very large drive.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: P5A MB will not recognize WD ATA 80GB drive 

"Patrick Dunford" <patrickdunford.DeleteThis@nomail.invalid> wrote in message
news:MPG.1b0f937a76d549e29896b1@news.paradise.net.nz...
 > In article <455v90l1sahsmdi0h2q4vdpdqmvvbr12db.DeleteThis@4ax.com>,
 > hhardie.DeleteThis@comcast.net says...
  > > I purchased a WD ATA 80GB drive. My P5A motherboard will not recognize
  > > it.
  > >
  > > The drive is recognized on two other machines. The P5A MB has been
  > > flashed with the latest BIOS. The cable from one of the machines which
  > > recognized the drive was used in the P5A MB and the drive was not
  > > recognized.
  > >
  > > The driver is jumpered as Master and there is no other drive on the
  > > cable.
  > >
  > > I subsequently purchased a WD ATA 40GB drive and it is recognized in
  > > the P5A machine.
  > >
  > > I am at a loss as to where to go from here.
 >
 > The P5A is a very old design now dating from about 1997 or so. Could
 > there be a Bios inherent limitation on this new very large drive.

It was the top of the line super-socket-7. It was better than an intel
P3-550 if you could find those K6+550 chips. Up until last year, the XBox
was not much faster. I have run win2k and XP with full acpi on my P5A and
P4AB with atx power and I had those K6+ chips. With beta bios both those
motherboards will support 128gb. Both systems have been passed on to
nephews but are still running and stable.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: P5A MB will not recognize WD ATA 80GB drive 

"Beemer Biker" <antispam RemoveThis @sbcglobal.net> wrote in message news:<3_cpc.269$ML5.217@newssvr23.news.prodigy.com>...
 >
 > It was the top of the line super-socket-7. It was better than an intel
 > P3-550 if you could find those K6+550 chips. Up until last year, the XBox
 > was not much faster. I have run win2k and XP with full acpi on my P5A and
 > P4AB with atx power and I had those K6+ chips. With beta bios both those
 > motherboards will support 128gb. Both systems have been passed on to
 > nephews but are still running and stable.

I agree. I have a P5A-B running an AMD K6-III-400 CPU on Win98.

While using the Bios version 1010, I discovered that it would not
recognize a 80GB hard disk; the maximum size it would recognize was a
60GB hard disk.

However, after flashing it to the Bios version 1011 beta 005, it will
recognize a 80 hard disk. In fact, I am now running it with a Maxtor
80GB IDE hard disk.

The P5A-B is a very stable motherboard, probably the best Super Socket
7 motherboard that I have ever used; and I have used many, with the
Ali Aladdin-5 chipset, the VIA MVP-3 chipset and the SIS-530 chipset.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: P5A MB will not recognize WD ATA 80GB drive 

In article <3_cpc.269$ML5.217@newssvr23.news.prodigy.com>,
antispam.RemoveThis@sbcglobal.net says...
 >
 > "Patrick Dunford" <patrickdunford.RemoveThis@nomail.invalid> wrote in message
 > news:MPG.1b0f937a76d549e29896b1@news.paradise.net.nz...
  > > In article <455v90l1sahsmdi0h2q4vdpdqmvvbr12db.RemoveThis@4ax.com>,
  > > hhardie.RemoveThis@comcast.net says...
   > > > I purchased a WD ATA 80GB drive. My P5A motherboard will not recognize
   > > > it.
   > > >
   > > > The drive is recognized on two other machines. The P5A MB has been
   > > > flashed with the latest BIOS. The cable from one of the machines which
   > > > recognized the drive was used in the P5A MB and the drive was not
   > > > recognized.
   > > >
   > > > The driver is jumpered as Master and there is no other drive on the
   > > > cable.
   > > >
   > > > I subsequently purchased a WD ATA 40GB drive and it is recognized in
   > > > the P5A machine.
   > > >
   > > > I am at a loss as to where to go from here.
  > >
  > > The P5A is a very old design now dating from about 1997 or so. Could
  > > there be a Bios inherent limitation on this new very large drive.
 >
 > It was the top of the line super-socket-7. It was better than an intel
 > P3-550 if you could find those K6+550 chips. Up until last year, the XBox
 > was not much faster.

I'd wager that the K6-2 350 with this board is slower than a Pentium II
350.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: P5A MB will not recognize WD ATA 80GB drive 

"Patrick Dunford" <patrickdunford DeleteThis @nomail.invalid> wrote in message
news:MPG.1b144395ee801b66989764@news.paradise.net.nz...

   > > > The P5A is a very old design now dating from about 1997 or so. Could
   > > > there be a Bios inherent limitation on this new very large drive.
  > >
  > > It was the top of the line super-socket-7. It was better than an intel
  > > P3-550 if you could find those K6+550 chips. Up until last year, the
XBox
  > > was not much faster.
 >
 > I'd wager that the K6-2 350 with this board is slower than a Pentium II
 > 350.

Yep, you are absolutely correct, only the K6 III and the "3+" chips had
that large internal cache and ran at 0 wait state. The few + chips that AMD
made were originally destined for the SBC & PC104 type market and were
engineering sample quantities, very hard to get. The "2+:" was better than
your K6-2 and would be comparable to a celeron rather than a true P2 They
wanted people to move to the K7 and IMHO purposely did not make enough of
them. The + were low power and I picked up 2 of those 3+450 the first time
I saw them on the market. A couple of weeks later, they were all gone and
people were re-selling theirs on ebay. They are still available
occasionally <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.softwareandstuff.com/cpu.html" target="_blank">http://www.softwareandstuff.com/cpu.html</a> but not all P5 boards
will take them. Unaccountably, the later model P5 mombos had problems.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: P5A MB will not recognize WD ATA 80GB drive